Customer Reviews

Time Is On Their Side! - By: Vinyl Junkie, 19 Nov 2008
Can't believe the ridiculous comments of Mr Reed, clearly not a Stone's fan, I've been a Fan since their second single & first album which I purchased when I was at school & remained a Fan ever since, & no, not a Fanatic just a Fan!

I with some other old friends went to the Premiere at one of the chosen Cinema's & we all thought that it was just fantastic, now that I have bought the DVD & played it backin DTS mode with a good high volume I enjoyed it even more. Yes, o.k. Keith's vocal on 'Connection' isn't outstanding but he does do a good job of 'You Got The Silver' & even though Paul Weller's been told for smoking on stage,in the States where the ban camein sooner clearly Keith doesn't give a monkey's, which has always been a Stones trait for all of us who have lived through it.

Mick does an excellent job of 'Sympathy For The Devil' & the crowd obviously love it, yes, there are young girls down the front near the band, why is it so hard to believe that young people actually like them, hasn't Ronnie just hitched up with someone young enough to be his daughter! Did we expect to see ancient Stone's fan's down the front with their zimmer frames, well, we're not that old, was Mr Reed present with his torch & personally 'Shine A Light' on every individual to see if any of the audience was over 60, what nonsense, been to a real concert recently have you?

As I remember it, the Stones have always dressed how they pleased & I think they still look cool, are they now supposed to buy all their clothes from 'Greenwoods'? As for the comment don't trust a manin a suit, well if you were there Mr Reed you will remember that Brian Epstein put 'The Beatles'in suit's at the beginning, I rest my case.

I hope when I reach Jagger's age, & I'm not that far off that I can still have this kind of energy, hat's off to the bloke, well done mate & keep it up. I also noted that Charlie Watt's is still just using a basic drum kit for all these great songs, I just saw Mick Fleetwood recently & he'd need a Transist just for the drum kit alone!

Remember from very early on they wrote their own song's & basically invented the 'The Rock Band'in this format, I'll bet many of the 'Bands' around today hope that they will survive this long & still be at the top of the game, this DVD show's off the quality of what will become their legacy to rock music!

If you are a lapsed Stone's Fan because of age or whatever, maybe listening to more mellow musicin your late years, this is well worth buying to rekindle those days before you started popping the vitamins. As they say, 'If The Knees Are'nt Knocking, Then Keep On Rocking' well done to the Stones & Mr Scorsese, pure excellence!

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Its Only RocknRoll But I Like It - By: Jeffna, 13 Nov 2008
I managed to miss thisin the cinema & waited a long time for it to turn up on DVD.
Its a great DVD, the sound is good quality, the video shots are superb the atmosphere is electric.
Its really nice the way Jagger comes across a bit tonguein cheek & the band don't seem to take it all too seriously.
The Stones aren't the best band ever but they have a long list of rock songs which deliver & have delivered constistently since 1960. Its all good fun.
Charlie Watts does a great job holding the rest of the band together, literally. And Jagger is still mesmeric to watch.
I saw them oncein Croydonin the '60's with Brian Jones, only for the sound to be obliterated totally by screaming girls.
So it was nice to get to hear themin concert at last.

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SHINE A LIGHT........SUPERB CLASSIC ROCK! - By: Martin Davies, 09 Nov 2008
FIRSTLY, MR REED, WHO CARES WHAT YOU THINK? ARE YOU A LEGENDARY ROCK STAR? ARE YOU A KNOWN AUTHORITY OR CRITIC WITHIN THE ROCK AND MOVIE WORLD? WHAT, NO? I AM NOT SURPRISED YOU LIST YOUR ADDRESS AS "SOMEWHERE, UK" AS I IMAGINE MANY STONES FANS WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK WITH YOU AND SHARE THEIR VIEWS. THE BIG QUESTION REMAINS, WHY DID YOU BUY THIS MOVIE IN THE FIRST PLACE?
SECONDLY, THE ROLLING STONES, SHINE A LIGHT, A CLASSIC ROCK PERFORMANCE WITH REAL ENTHUSIASM FROM THE BAND. NOT AGELESS, BUT WHO IS?

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Nothing Makes You Look Older Than Trying To Be Younger Than You Actually Are - By: Mr. M. A. Reed, 14 Aug 2008
Scorcese's long running love affair with music - first cemented with The Last Waltz, confirmed with Bowie's best ever rolein "After Hours" & the Dylan documentaries- becomes full scale flesh with "Shine A Light". Ostensibly a record of a Rolling Stones concertin New York, "Shine A Light" is an unwitting comedy classic.

Guffaws could meet every outrageous archive interview statement from a po-faced Keef Richards, every bizarre haircut from the age style forgot with Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger, every craggy faced grimace from the band as they trade out Ancient Rock Riffs, or Jagger as he pouts & preens as a sexagenarian jogs & runs around the stagein an impossibly expensive shirt & becomes a one dimensional walkin' talkin' rock'n'roll cliche. He jumps & preens & pouts, an old man playing a young game, & looks absolutely ridiculous. If this film has a message or a moral, without even meaning it, it is : Nothing Looks Stupider Than Trying To Look Younger Than You Are.

On the screen, the lens of fame magnifies & distorts all things to a set of simple caricatures. If I were to describe a rock star with a swagger, or a pair of lips, or sunglasses, or a hat, you could probably guess which rock star I was talking about. For example if I said there was a rock star whose face looks as if it was cut from a cliff face, hair smearedin Vaseline, & drownedin bangles, you'd know there's only one rock star that fits that bill : Keef Richards.

Keef swaggers. Keef kneels. Keef self-consciously aware of his mythology, reverts to type, jiggles the way you expect him to, & plays the role of Keef Richards, Aging Rock Star as he passes a guitar pick to yet another pretty girlin the front row. So much so that this film isn't a documentary or a concert film, but an obviously fictionalised version of a Rolling Stones concert : with clearly staged shots & impossible CGI sweeps that clearly break the moment & drag the viewer out of the feeling & into the realm of cinema.

But there's more to it than that : aside from some of most efficient & effectively shot concert of all time (aided by a list of cinematographers that are a Who's Who Of The Best Camera Guys In The World that make "Shine A Light" a visual feast of wrinkles), there's a subtle & effective underpinning of the concert footage with deftly chosen archive interview footage - seemingly chosen to evoke laughter at the very stupid bombast of rock - & preceded & book ended by mini documentaries into the stupid world of fame.

This is what fame is like, Charlie Watts makes clear with his subtle glances & interaction with the camera : after meeting the Clintons, he is clearly dismayed to then meet an extended selection of Clinton hanger-ons, third cousins twice removed & pose for photos with near enough everyonein the entire city. Jagger manipulates the situation to discuss the minuatae of the setlist, the positioning of the stage, the exact number of seconds he can stand under a spotlight before receiving retina damage : a deeply cynical yet astute businessman whose job is to be a high-speed musical performance athelete. With $437,000,000 riding on the tour this film is culled from, it's clear that Jagger, Richards, Watts, the lesser-seen Skeletor of Ronnie Wood - alongside the rarely seen session bassist, keyboardist, three backup singers, horn section, guest vocalists & a front row of strategically placed young purty girls who don't know the songs - all existin this moment solely for the purpose of being documented on camera.

What is also apparent is that there are no fat, or old, or male Rolling Stones fans. Aside from Bill Clinton. Clinton, incidentally, still wears a suit to rock out. Never trust a manin a suit.

Oh yes, the music. None of it under twenty five years old, apart from a couple of cover versions. The ragged (but immaculately mixed) soundtrack - alongside the visuals - sees the band attempting once again to self-mythologise & preserve themselves on film. Fundamentally, this film sees The Stones as much better than they actually are, views them under the uncritical eye of a fan, & sets them more as unquestionable modern heroes. Scorcese has missed the opportunity to present a modern day document that would reveal the true machinations of the bandin favour of a glossy wrinkles & all set that takes the modern concert film & films it as one would a multi-camera action sequence, with precision & artistry. "Shine A Light" is an OK film, but you have to be a fan of the band to see any worthin it. Seen as a comic reflection upon the absurdity of fame & the indignity of hard rocking pensioners, it's a sly comment of no small tragedy that perhaps has a greater meaning than ever intended.